CLIO for Crisis Management

When incidents escalate in to a full blown crisis, organisations need to be prepared to respond with Speed, Efficiency and Cohesion.

A crisis can take many forms but can result from critical incidents caused by:

Natural Disaster or Weather

Technology Failure

Malice or Malevolence

Terror or Man-made disasters

Confrontational Threat

Threats and danger to Employees and Duty of Care failure

Even when an organisation has invested time, money and resources into developing a proper Crisis management strategy and plan, they rely on a paper based system that doesn't deliver collaboration or effective communication during a crisis and doesn't allow constant automated monitoring or logging of activity.

However, while history has many examples of organisations that managed a crisis badly and suffered as a result - even leading to the complete destruction of the company in several cases; there are also examples of where a good and well managed crisis management plan actually enhanced the reputation of both the organisation and the senior executive management.

CLIO is a software based solution that allows you to implement your Crisis Management plans through a real-time, collaborative environment whilst also ensuring that every action is recorded and can be reviewed and audited at a later date.

This allows a high degree of automation for your Crisis Management strategy and to ensure policies are implemented and executed with precision and efficiency.

This is extremely important in today's digital age where 24 hour news and the explosion in growth of social media means you have to be constantly aware of what is happening and in communication with your whole team or risk losing control of the situation and the outcome.

CLIO was developed to help authorities respond to some of the most demanding crisis driven situations imaginable. Mature, robust, effective and flexible, it is a proven solution for anyone who needs to be ready for any type of crisis that could arise.

It helps any organisation of any size prepare and successfully manage a crisis whatever the cause, scale or lifecycle of that crisis.

There are several key elements to successfully managing a crisis. A system should be capable of integrating all of the following:

PlanningThe ability to plan for any type of crisis and create both the policies and workflows needed to respond to them and to make these the core of your system.

InvocationWhen a crisis occurs you need to be able to trigger your response immediately and know that the assigned team is on it and involved quickly and automatically.

NotificationThe team needs to be notified automatically. However, it is important to understand that while notifying the team is important, it is how the team can then collaborate and communicate that is critical to success. All too often a notification solution is regarded as sufficient for responding to a crisis. It is not.

Team and rolesThe team for each type of potential crisis has to be identified and each aware of their role and responsibilities. A system needs to be able to utilise and work around roles rather than individuals.

CollaborationThe system has to allow full collaboration between team members and a full exchange of information and activity while allowing levels of hierarchy and security where required.

Real-time communicationsAll messages and actions have to be communicated in real-time. Everyone needs to be aware instantly of events, actions and new information.

LogsEverything (messages, activities, actions, events, new information) has to be logged and be available.

Action and task managementTeam members need to assign actions and tasks when required and monitor the outcome.

Environmental awarenessAll external factors need to be capable of being monitored and assessed. This may be newsfeeds relevant to the crisis, social media feeds or reports from both employees and outsiders. Anything that could have an impact on the ensuing crisis (both positively and negatively) is an important part of the overall process.

Responsibility and AccountabilityIt has to be clear in the plan who bears responsibility for key parts of the plan and who is and will be accountable. This is also directly drive by the next element.

AuditA solution need to maintain a full audit trail of all activity. This has to be able to demonstrate who knew what and when as well as what action was taken. Furthermore, it needs to be incorruptible and evidential if needed.

Test and exerciseAny crisis management system should be tested through regular exercises and reviewed to ensure it remains valid and relevant.

FlexibilityFinally, a good crisis management system should be flexible and have the ability to be tailored to any type of crisis as well as evolve with the organisation and both local and Global events.